Saturday, 22 November 2014

Wake in Fright (1971)

I've been thinking of how to review this and I think Todd Gaines has the right idea - stream of consciousness. So here goes (and much thanks to Todd).

Heat, flies, resignation, dream, hope, yellow, schooners, escape, dust, decay, stains, sweat, mining, beer, intimidation, indignation, isolation, greed, gambling, threats, lust, vomit, fever, fear, fried, trapped, distress, money, gambling, beer, roo, stubbies, lamping, barbarity, orgiastic, cruelty, masculinity, suffering, regret, pressure, ugliness, rage, violence, disgust, escape, survival, devolution, anger, hope, despair, madness, escape, release, sorrow, rebirth, escape, return.

I used to take a train home at the weekend at the same time as the oil riggers after 2 weeks of hard graft. One rigger told me the story of how it once took two weeks to get home after stopping at every station, getting shit-faced, sleeping rough and then catching the train the next day. As soon as he got home it was time to catch the train back and start work again.

A fantastic film examining masculinity - for example it has a great wrestling moment with Donald Pleasence that, I'm sure, takes the piss out of the equivalent scene with Oliver Reed (the contemporary portrait of masculinity) in Women in Love.

Final though: "Withnail & I" has been usurped: the dialogue is the dog's bollocks and eminently quotable.

"All the little devils are proud of hell"

Original letterboxd review

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